Is that really you Tweeting? “I think we’re in a viral…”

This week MB Roundtable Host Emeritus Sarah Wurrey joined host Jen Zingsheim and guest Sandy Kalik of Media Awaken. Up for discussion this week were the topics of ghost Twittering, the WSJ’s declaration that its journalists will be judged on whether they break the news (whatever that means these days), and the emergence of advertising that is actually creative, entertaining, and funny.

The first topic up for discussion are the questions raised by Guy Kawasaki’s admission that he uses “ghost Tweeters” to augment his twitter stream. Sandy and Sarah were equally incensed about this, since this was the twitter stream under Guy’s name, not one of his companies. Jen points out that busy people don’t have time to sit on Twitter all day, and that sometimes a person’s personality becomes a ‘company’ of sorts. The Roundtable also discussed whether disclosure that others are tweeting is enough, or is Twitter inherently different?

The Roundtable then moved on to talking about a post on Crisisblogger, which covered a memo issued by a Wall Street Journal editor to reporters disclosing that they will be judged on breaking news. With individuals armed with cameraphones acting as on-the-ground reporters, what does “breaking news” really mean? And, is this a positive or negative for thoughtful journalism?

Finally, the Roundtable ended on a fun note, discussing creative commercial content. Has the Internet driven advertisers to be more creative with their content, and does developing advertising for niche markets allow for more latitude when coming up with catchy advertising? Examples are: Mini-Cooper’s “I think we’re in a viral,” IKEA’s car advertising, and the Geico Gekko being placed in “classic” viral videos.